This article pairs well with “What AI Means for Buddhism.“
Implemented ethically, AI could become a valuable tool for helping people improve their results when seeking mental health care. But Stade noted that the reasons behind this crisis are wider-reaching than the realm of technology and would require a solution that is not simply a new app. When I asked Stede about AI’s role in solving the access crisis in US mental health care, she said: “I believe we need universal health care. There’s so much outside the AI space that needs to happen.”
Therapy means a lot of different things to different people, and people come to therapists for a lot of different reasons, says Lara Honos-Webb, a clinical psychologist who specializes in ADHD and the co-founder of a startup aimed at helping those managing the condition. Those who have found ChatGPT useful, she said, might be approaching these tools at the level of “problem, solution.” Tools like this might seem like they’re pretty good at reframing thoughts or providing “behavioral activation,” such as a list of healthy activities to try. Stade added that, from a research perspective, experts don’t really know what it is that people feel is working for them in this case.